Sciatica Treatment

In most people, self care measures is usually recommended a sciatica treatment as this usually responds well. Continuing with your usual activities but avoiding the original factor that aggravated your sciatica pain in the first place will help you to heal more quickly. Even though it seems like a few days of bed rest may provide some relief, any more then this is not a good idea. Inactivity will make your symptoms worse over time. In addition to self care sciatica treatment, try some of the following: Cold Packs: Cold packs help to reduce inflammation and relieve some of the discomfort. In a clean towel, wrap an ice pack or a bag of frozen peas and apply to the affected areas for fifteen to twenty minutes four times per day. Hot Packs: After 48 hours have passed, apply heat to the affected areas. Warm packs or a heating pad on the lowest setting should help to alleviate some of the pain. Try to alternate warm and cold packs if you continue to have pain. Stretching: When stretching initially after your sciatica flare up, stick to passive stretching and avoid jerking motions including bouncing or twisting. Over The Counter Medication: There are two categories of pain killers. The first one only relieves pain. The second type of pain killer relieves pain as well as treats inflammation. These are called Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Products such as aspirin, ibuprofen and acetaminophen products such as Tylenol can help to relieve sciatica pain. These can provide real pain relief but there is a limit to how much pain can be controlled. This is known as the ceiling effect - exceeding the recommended dosage wont provide better results. Worse though is that these NSAIDS are known to cause side effects in some people such as nausea, stomach bleeding or ulcers. Acetaminophen has been known to cause liver problems if taken in excess. If you use these medications on a regular basis talk to you health care professional so that you can be monitored for problems associated with prolonged usage. If you are exercising, stretching or following another sciatica treatment program you should periodically re-evaluate if you still require these NSAIDS for pain management. Prescription Drugs: A muscle relaxant along with anti-inflammatory medications may be prescribed by your health care professional. In some cases of chronic pain anticonvulsant and tricyclic antidepressant drugs may also be prescribed. By blocking the pain messages being sent to your brain or enhancing the bodies production of endorphins, pain symptoms can sometimes be handled this way. Your bodies natural painkillers are called endorphins. Physical Therapy: Physical therapy can play an important part in your recovery from a herniated disk. When your condition improves your physical therapist can work with you to help design a rehabilitation program that will help you prevent the same injury in the future. Regular Exercise: When you injure yourself you think that movement or exercise would be counterproductive and all you want to do is just lay down and rest until the pain goes away. The truth is that regular exercise is the best way to combat many ailments, including chronic discomfort. When you exercise your body releases endorphins. Endorphins are the chemical that prevent pain signals from reaching your brain and can also help to fight against anxiety and depression. Your pain may be more difficult to control if you suffer from either depression or anxiety.

The solutions are simple: 1. Release tension in the muscles which can be accomplished by stretching (most important is to know when and how to stretch). You need to warm up a beat before doing any stretching because your muscles need to have their blood supply and nerve stimulated. This saves time and reduced the chances to get some minor injuries while stretching.

Inability to manage daily activities. Severe pain, which worsens over a period of weeks. Pain returning often. Seek immediate medical attention if you should experience:

There are many ways of treating sciatica but there also many ways of preventing sciatica in the first place. We will look at some of the best ways to prevent and treat Sciatica.

Degenerative disc disease and subsequent herniated discs are linked to two factors: Aging Genetics As we age, the deep muscles of the spine begin to deteriorate. This creates a dynamic instability to your back. At the same time, the discs begin to lose their water content resulting in a loss in disc height and strength. This ultimately leads to failure of the disc material.

For example, chiropractic treatment is one such method in which you are offered non-invasive and medication-free therapies, to treat your sciatica. Chiropractic treatments can involve ultrasounds, TENS, spinal adjustments and cold therapies. Other alternative methods of treatment include acupuncture or acupressure, in which fine needles are stuck at specific points to help relieve pain; yoga, which involve stretching exercises and help a certain kind of sciatica pain and biofeedback, which is said to be a mind-body therapy helping you train your mind and body in controlling your reactions to pain.

To make this determination, a thorough physical examination must be performed and the findings corroborated with MRI films. WARNING: Your report of symptoms and a study of the MRI film DOES NOT constitute a thorough physical exam. It should include a detailed medical history, an actual assessment of your movement, strength, reflexes, sensation and any pertinent clinical tests plus a review of the MRI film.

I get two common questions in my practice about sciatica. If you know the answers to these will help you getting directions to solving your back problems. Although back pain may be a pretty complex issue it can be solved using very simple solutions.

Joints must move correctly and your pelvis needs to be well balanced. Your muscular system will fail if your joints do not improve. The same thing goes for your pelvis ? if it does not improve your muscular system will continually fail.

See, these very simple, painless and quick ways to evade the sciatica pain by keeping your pelvis and joints in a good shape.

Learn more about the various sciatica pain relief methods. Discover what are the best physical therapy for sciatica.

Tip 1: Posture, Posture, Posture: Maintaining a good posture while standing and sitting go a long way to avoid damage to the spine. Also one should avoid sitting or standing for very long periods.

Yet, despite these favorable back pain statistics, a herniated disc diagnosis continues to cause concern in people suffering with back pain. To alleviate this concern, it's important that you understand the process for determining the significance of a herniated disc. Plus, you should know the steps you can take to reduce the chances of a herniated disc ever becoming an issue.

First question: What are the Simple Steps to Follow? If you want to get rid of the sciatica pain you need to find the main factors that cause this. If you don?t find all the factors, the pain will return soon or will never leave.

Numbness around crotch or genitals Difficulty in passing or controlling urine Numbness, pins and needles or weakness in both legs Unsteadiness while standing

Pain that radiates into the buttocks and down the leg is often referred to as sciatica. Yes, sciatica pain can be caused by irritation of the nerve root from a herniated disc. But, chances are your sciatica symptoms are the result of irritation of the sciatic nerve from a structure outside the spine.

Almost all these treatments are accompanied or followed by physical therapy, under a physician's supervision or on his prescribed course. This kind of physical therapy concentrates on building the muscles around the sciatica nerve roots so as to strengthen the lower back.

Many people think of sciatica, symptoms of which include pain down the leg, some numbness and weakness of the limbs as just another case of lower back pain and believe that with sufficient rest, the pain will go away. However, sciatica is a little more serious than that.

Treatment such as ultrasound, electrical stimulation, massage, and moist heat, while soothing, do nothing to address your muscle imbalances. Even surgical intervention is ineffective if you don't first address the underlying muscle imbalances.

3. Realize herniated disks don't just happen because you leaned over to pick up a Kleenex. Spinal discs are tougher than what was once thought. They can tolerate a tremendous amount of physical abuse. Just ask the Navy SEAL recruits who entered SEAL training with diagnoses of herniated disc problems. After 14 weeks of the most physical and mental challenging training on the planet, they experienced no changes in their herniated discs.

How to End Your Worrying & Your Back Pain 1. Understand that the presence of low back pain, pain radiating down the leg, and a positive MRI do NOT necessarily implicate a herniated disc as the source of your back problem.

For more info on sciatica treatment head to: http://www.sciaticatreatment.org today!

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2. Increase your awareness of specific symptoms that may implicate a more serious back problem. These include: Fever in addition to intense back or neck pain.

5. Stop pursuing treatments that will have zero effect on your herniated disc problems. Instead you should seek out a musculoskeletal specialist that has the skills to identify and address underlying muscle imbalances. Chances are that once identified and treated, your back pain and sciatica pain will go away completely.

"Sciatol really worked for me. After 2 weeks my shooting leg pain is gone and I feel so much better. Thank you!!!" Daniel

In most circumstances conservative sciatica treatment is tried for three to six months. When conservative sciatica treatment fails to alleviate your pain more aggressive sciatica treatment options are usually attempted. Epidural Steroid Injections: An injection of a corticosteroid medication to the affected area may be helpful in some instances. If taken in doses that exceed your natural levels, inflammation is suppressed relieving painful symptoms caused by the pressure of the inflammation. Most effective when used in conjunction with a sciatica treatment rehabilitation program. Because of the serious side effects that corticosteroid injections can cause, the number of injections you can receive in a year is usually limited to no more then three. Surgery: Surgery is most often a last resort and left until the compressed nerve causes significant weakness, loss of bowel or bladder control, or if the pain itself is progressing and conventional sciatica treatment is not working. Most often surgery is preformed as a sciatica treatment to remove a portion of a herniated disk that is pressing on a nerve. The goal is to preserve as mush of the normal anatomy as possible, leaving as much of the disk intact as possible.

When it returns it usually gets worse with each episode and this is why so many people complain about constant nagging back pain. Sciatica commonly becomes more severe as the time passes and eventually surgery becomes the only valid option. If you fail to address all the factors that causes your sciatica you will suffer when you get older.

Low back pain will affect 80% of the American population at some point in their life. And, of the 80% who experience a first time episode of back pain, the pain will resolve with little or no intervention. In fact, only 10% of all back pain sufferers ever require surgery.

Tip 2: Lifting of Heavy Objects: Try to share the load of very heavy objects with others. If you have to lift something by yourself, hold it close to you and then bend your knees, rather than bending your back.

4. Stop or reverse your spinal aging process by exercising and retraining your affected back muscles. Tight back muscles need to be stretched and weak back muscles need to be strengthened. Too many times back treatment is geared towards symptom management rather than addressing the specific muscle imbalances, which are responsible for your back pain problems.

Occasionally, the sciatic nerve roots - which start at the base of the spine and stretch all the way to the feet through the buttock and legs - get compressed or irritated causing pain not only in the lower back but also in the buttocks, thighs, legs, extending even to the feet.

The techniques necessary to solve the sciatica problems and the lower back pain are easy to use, quick to apply, takes almost no time and ca be used daily and compared to back pains this surely won?t rule your life.

The Truth About Herniated Disks May Shock You Did you know that if we were to perform an MRI on people with NO back pain, as high as 85% of those people would show evidence of a herniated disc? The truth is that if you have back pain, there's a good chance a herniated disc has NOTHING to do with your pain.

Bad news? Maybe but in all likelihood, it's not as bad as you may think. You may have heard people say they have a "slipped" or "ruptured" disc in the back. You may have even heard terms like "bulging" or "protruding" discs. These are common "street names" that describe a herniated disc.

Very rarely, though, sciatica pain can be extremely severe and debilitating for patients who are recommended surgery. New surgical techniques like microsurgery and percutaneous removals allow patients to undergo these procedures and come out of the hospital much faster than ever before, decreasing the loss of work time.

Tip 4: Medication and Physical Therapy: If you are suffering from lower back and leg pain, you could start off with simple painkillers, such as ibuprofen or paracetamol. If the pain is severe, affecting your day-to-day activities and simple painkillers do not work, you could have an anti-inflammatory medication prescribed for you. At times, these too are not enough and your doctor may suggest an epidural injection. In this, the medication is injected into the spine, which directs it to the areas of the sciatic nerve roots, soothing them and relieving the pain.

Does this scenario sound familiar? You bend over to pick a Kleenex off the floor. Your back locks up. You begin to experience lower back pain radiating into the buttocks and down the leg. You consult with your doctor who orders an MRI. The MRI report identifies a herniated disc.

Tip 5: Alternative Methods of Treatment: Other than medication and surgery, many patients suffering from sciatica have tried alternative methods of treatment and have claimed great success with them.

Tip 3: Exercise Regularly: Regular exercise will not only help you in your general fitness but also in the fitness of your lower back. Abdominal crunches are very helpful in strengthening your lower back. Swimming or Walking can also help with the lower back.

Sciatica pain relief in a few simple and very easy steps. If you know what to do, and most importantly, what to target, sciatica pain relief can be simple, easy and quick.

About the Author:

Malton Schexneider PT, MMSc, provides simple, easy and safe back pain relief strategies for people suffering with low back pain, sciatica, herniated discs and degenerative disc disease. Now, for the first time ever, Malton reveals top insider secrets that will erase your back pain. Now with this limited time offer, you can get his NEW eBook,"Back Pain Relief Secrets" for FREE at: eraseyourbackpain.com/free-patient-guides

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Does this scenario sound familiar?
You bend over to pick a Kleenex off the floor. Your back locks up. You begin to experience lower back pain radiating into the buttocks and down the leg. You consult with your doctor who orders an MRI. The MRI report identifies a herniated disc.
Bad news?
Maybe but in all likelihood, it s not as bad as you may think.
You may have heard people...